Five named on Isle of Wight contract shortlist

Isle of Wight council has today (November 11) announced a shortlist of five bidders for its long term household waste collection, treatment and disposal contract, which is due to commence in October 2015.

The new contractor will replace the councils existing integrated municipal waste contract, which has been operated by Island Waste Services, a subsidiary of Biffa, since 1997.

The shortlist consists of:

• Biffa;
• AmeyCespa;
• Veolia;
• Viridor and Serco consortium, and;
• FCC Environment.

Isle of Wight council has now asked each of the bidders to submit proposals on how they plan to service the contract, which it is estimated could be worth up to 225 million.

The contract is expected to last between 15-25 years, and will also include the collection and treatment of food and green waste, operation and management of the islands civic amenity sites, provision of a reuse and waste minimisation service for residents, as well as any necessary infrastructure for the treatment of the islands municipal waste and recyclables.

Efficiency

Councillor Jonathan Gilbey, the councils cabinet member for resources, said: We are determined this contract will be to the Islands long-term advantage, both in terms of achieving the best possible recycling rates and an efficient and economically-viable waste collection and processing service for Island residents.

The new contract provides us with the opportunity to analyse and review in detail how we collect and use our waste on the Island, especially with a view to our increasing population and the amount of waste we produce and recycle.

Under the terms of the deal, the council is asking bidders to draw up plans that will see the council achieve a 90% landfill diversion rate by 2025, as well as a combined recycling and composting rate of 55% by 2020, rising to 60% by 2025.

According to the latest local authority waste and recycling data published by Defra last week (see letsrecycle.com story) of the 70,000 tonnes of waste collected on the Isle of Wight, the council achieved a 46% combined composting and recycling rate in 2012/13, whilst sending around 37% to landfill.

Innovation

Councillor Luisa Hillard, Isle of Wights cabinet member for sustainability, added: It is still early days in the process but I trust the initial solutions for the collection, recycling and treatment of our residential waste will be an exciting mix of innovation and proven technology that should help the Island to become more sustainable, as aspired to in the Framework for Change.

Changes to the councils waste and recycling collections were made in February 2012, with the local authority switching to alternate weekly collections of residual waste and recyclables, with a weekly food waste collection also available (see letsrecycle.com story).

The move was a result of the councils desire to reduce its dependence on sending waste to the gasification plant operated on the island by Waste Gas Technology a subsidiary of energy firm Energos which had been described as unreliable following a temporary closure of the plant due to breaches of emissions limits (see letsrecycle.com).